One of the reasons I think people hate/distrust lawyers is that we are constantly telling our clients why they shouldn’t do what they want to do.  As lawyers, we are expected to protect our clients and warn them about the potential consequences of their business or personal decisions

Kathy Sierra has another outstanding post titled Death by Devil’s Advocate deconstructing the role of “Devil’s Advocate” and agreeing with IDEO’s Tom Kelly, who says the "devil's advocate may be the biggest innovation killer in America today."  And who plays the devil’s advocate role better than lawyers?  We can’t help it.  It’s built into our professional DNA.

Before we kill off  another client innovation, think about Kathy’s advice:

… whether playing devil's advocate, angel of optimism, or any other persona, I believe the emphasis should be on offering solutions, not just criticism. Yes it's true that one can know something is wrong without knowing how to fix it, but if people tried to adopt the perspective that "I'm going to try to always include possible alternatives and solutions when I critcize", it might make meetings a little more bearable.